Karnataka - Gulbarga   

Farmers damage government offices

PANIC BUYING?: Farmers waiting to collect coupons for fertilizers in front of the office of the Joint Director APMC in Gulbarga on Friday. At right is damaged windowpane at the office of the Karnataka State Agricultural Marketing Federation in Gulbarga.

GULBARGA: Rumours about the shortage of the fertilizer sparked violence with farmers venting their ire on the office of the Joint Director of the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee and the office of the General Manager of the Karnataka State Agriculture Marketing Federation in the APMC Yard at Nehru Gunj in Gulbarga on Friday morning.

The trouble sparked off when hundreds of farmers from different villages in the district had collected before the office of the Joint Director of the APMC where the tokens were issued for farmers to collect their share of the available fertilizer after rumours that there was a severe shortage of fertilizer in the district and token would not be issued today.

Irate farmers shouting slogans against the Government threw stones at the office of the Joint Director of the APMC and the general manager of the Marketing Federation damaging the grills, window panes and cut the telephone connections to the two offices.

The officials of the APMC rushed to the spot and assured the farmers that the tokens would be issued as usual and there was no shortage of fertilizers.

Meanwhile, another group of farmers threw stone on vehicles passing through the Gulbarga-Bidar National Highway damaging window panes of the two autorickshaws kicking off a row between farmers and autorickshaw drivers.

The farmers and autorickshaw drivers resorted to “rasta roko” on the national highway for over 30 minutes demanding action against each other. The police intervened and persuaded the two groups to end the agitation.

With the rains lashing the district for the past three days, there has been heavy demand for fertilizers. The officials are finding it difficult to cope with the milling crowd asking for coupons for fertilizers to be supplied to them.

The police had to use mild force in the morning at the office of the Joint Director of the APMC where the tokens were issued.

Another report said the police had to resort to lathicharge in APMC yard on Thursday to regulate the crowd of farmers waiting to collect the coupons.

Following the widespread rains, the sowing operations in the district was in full swing.

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